THE VOYAGE OUT follows professional hunting guide Marc Warnke, and renowned survival expert Callie Russell, as they lead Mansal Denton, a struggling tech entrepreneur, into the Rocky Mountains on an 8-day expedition for elk, the most elusive prey in the wilderness. The trials of the journey surface our trio's foremost wounds, revealing what has driven them into the wilderness. A true feat of 16mm filmmaking, the documentary explores humanity’s place in nature so profoundly that it feels like a voyage into the depths of one’s own mortal soul.

Synopsis

Subjects

  • At the time of the hunt Mansal was a 28-year-old novice bow hunter and mental performance expert, whose work had been featured in VICE, Entrepreneur, and Forbes. Growing up mixed-race in a predominantly white neighborhood, and at age 18, he stole rare historical documents from a history museum where he was employed. He sold those documents on the internet to make money to pursue a girl in Switzerland whom he met online. When he returned to the U.S. he was arrested and eventually sentenced to 8 years in prison. During his incarceration, he had to explore his feelings of inadequacy, sexual identity, and masculinity. Upon his release, he founded the website Nootropedia, which was an educational resource to help people improve mental performance. In his studies on the human brain, he focused on trauma stored inside the body. He recognized that the same trauma applies to animals and committed himself to only eating animal products that he killed himself. His vision is to use hunting as a way to rediscover something that he believes has been lost in modern society.

  • Marc Warnke is a 50 year-old father of two sons and a professional hunting guide, with 27 years of experience. He leads hunting expeditions around the world and has been featured in Trophy Hunter magazine, Eastman Hunting Journal, and the European TV series, “Twin Hunter.” He is also an expert on all things goats and has started a business (packgoats.com) that sells equipment for, and is an educational site, about goat herding and care. He has a team of goats he uses to pack in gear on deep country hunting expeditions - allowing him to go further and stay longer in the wilderness than other hunters. Marc’s deep love of animals and nature is a fascinating juxtaposition from his occupation as a professional hunter.

  • At the time of filming, Callie was a 30 year-old wilderness survival expert. As a result of tragic events from her childhood she was led to explore the meaning of death and her relationship to it. For the past 8 years Callie has lived off the grid - hunting, foraging, and growing all of the food that she consumes. Until last year she owned a herd of goats that she shepherded across the Idaho and Montana landscape. She lives on five thousand dollars a year, which she earns conducting wilderness survival classes for at-risk teenagers in the summers, teaching basket weaving at craft fairs, and as a camp hand and guide for the hunts that Marc leads. Soon after filming, Callie was chosen to compete on the 7th season of the History Channel’s survivalist reality series, “ALONE.” The series has over 2 million viewers and she  was a fan favorite, and finished second in the competition.

The Crew

  • Barlow Jacobs

    Director / Co-Editor / Producer
    Barlow is a writer, director, and actor who started his career by co-writing, producing and starring in the feature LOW AND BEHOLD which premiered at Sundance . The film went on to win nine festival awards, five for Best Narrative. The Huffington Post called it “a daring work of film-making” and The Atlantic wrote that it was “one of those rare commercial films about a large-scale tragedy that manages to express something true and meaningful.” Barlow has gone on to work with an extraordinary group of filmmakers throughout his career, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Jeff Nichols, David Lowery, David Gordon Green, Ry Russo-Young, Craig Zobel, and Michael Almereyda. Barlow wrote and directed the experimental short film PERMANENT SKINS, which wowed audiences for its unique storytelling style and technical achievement. Before taking on THE VOYAGE OUT, Barlow Executive Produced DAVYEON, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards in 2018.

  • Keetin Mayakara

    Producer
    Keetin Mayakara has worked across a range of film, TV and documentary over the duration of her career. She is grateful to have been a part of so many inspiring projects from esteemed filmmakers such as Steven Soderberg, David Lowery, Dee Rees, Ira Sachs, Terence Nance, Benh Zeitlin, Trey Edward Shults, Antonio Campos, Lasse Hallström, and Susanne Bier. As a post producer, she has worked on some of the industry’s top honored films including the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo and Laura Poitras’ Oscar-nominated and Golden Lion winning documentary All The Beauty And The Bloodshed. Mayakara also Co-Produced the NEON omnibus The Year of the Everlasting Storm, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival, and Produced season two of HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness. After spending several years producing with Big Beach in LA, she’s now splitting time between San Clemente, CA and NYC, consulting, developing and producing in both film and television.

  • Sean Webly

    Cinematographer
    Sean Webley worked under Academy Award Nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto before breaking out on his own. He is a filmmaker and visual artist whose work has shown in international film festivals and galleries. His photography and installation work has shown in galleries in New York City, Berlin, and the Museo Efímero del Olvido in Bogota, and Colombia. Sean’s most recent multi-media work “Motion: art, autos, architecture. Two mobility futures 0∞” premiered at the Guggenheim and is currently touring Germany.

  • Alex O'Flinn

    Co-Editor
    After studying literature in college, he decided to explore the visual world of storytelling.  Some of his credits include the Amazon limited series "Expats" for director Lulu Wang, "The Underground Railroad" for director Barry Jenkins, "The Rider" for director Chloé Zhao,  "A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" for director Ana Lily Amirpour and "The OA" for showrunners Zal Batmangli and Brit Marling.  In 2017 he received a "Best Editing" nomination from The Independent Spirit Awards for his work on "The Rider”, and in 2022 received a Peabody Award for his work on “The Underground Railroad”. 

  • Jackson Greenberg

    Composer
    Jackson studied music at Princeton University, The Royal College of Music in London and USC’s Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program. Jackson’s work has been featured in award winning television and film and performed by ensembles and orchestras around the world. His notable film work was in the award winning documentary CARTEL LAND.

  • Johnny Marshall

    Sound Designer
    Johnny received a Sundance 2013 Special Jury Award for Sound Design as well as

    being nominated for the 2013 ALFS Technical Achievement of the Year Award by the London

    Film Critics’ Circle, both honoring his sound design on UPSTREAM COLOR.  In 2022 he received a  nomination for Best Sound in the Irish Film and Drama Awards for THE GREEN KNIGHT. His recent work  includes  A GHOST STORY for A24, THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN for Fox Searchlight, THE VAST OF NIGHT for Amazon Prime, 12 MIGHTY ORPHANS for Sony Pictures Classics, and THE GREEN KNIGHT for A24.

  • David Gordon Green

    Executive Producer
    As a director, writer and producer, his film credits include the award winning indie films GEORGE WASHINGTON, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, and SNOW ANGELS. He also directed and produced blockbusters like PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and HALLOWEEN franchise which smashed several box office records, and has most recently revived the EXORCIST franchise.

  • Ley Line Entertainment

    Executive Producers
    Founded in 2018 by Theresa Steele Page and Tim Headington. The company is best known for producing films LIGHT FROM LIGHT (2019) MISS JUNETEENTH (2020), THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021) and the Academy Award winning EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022).

  • Maiden Voyage

    Executive Producers
    Founded by Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus as a home for discovering and shepherding new talent - as well as  making dynamic and challenging films. They are best known for award winning films like THE WITCH (2015),  THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019), and most recently NOSFERATU (2024).

  • Sons of Rigor

    Executive Producers
    Founded by Douglas Choi in 2017. They are an Independent film finance and Co-Production Company that was founded with the aim of finding and supporting talented indie filmmakers looking to make original fiction and cinematic documentary films. They are best known for their Sundance award winning film THE STARLING GIRL (2023).

  • Donaldson, Calliff, & Perez

    Legal Representation
    One of the industry’s most prominent independent producers of film, television & web-based content.

  • Fifth Season + WME

    Sales Agents
    The film point agents are Ariel Richter (Fifth Season) and Abraham Bengio (WME).